Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also referred to as “drones,” are commonly used for delivery, surveying, photography, and/or power or communications repeater functions. Some UAVs include planar component that are aimed in a particular direction for operation, such as antennas and solar panels. As part of normal flight, rotor-powered UAVs (e.g., quadcopters) pitch down in order to apply thrust from the flight rotors in the direction of travel. However, pitching down causes the planar array platform to also tip, which can generate negative lift for the UAV. While power to the rotors may be increased in order to generate more lift to compensate for negative lift generated by tilted panels, this tends to reduce the operating range and flight time of the UAV due to the increase power drain on the batteries.